DescriptionThis variable classifies employed people aged 15 years and over according to whether they are employed in the government or non-government (private) sector. There are three categories for the three levels of government. That is, Commonwealth, state/territory and local government. Employed people who are not employed by the government are coded to the category Private sector. More Detailed Description

There are many aspects which can affect the quality of Census data; the following information should be considered when viewing data on Government/Non-Government Employer Indicator (GNGP).

This data was captured from responses about the business name of employer and workplace address questions (Questions 40 and 41 on the Census household form) as well as the question the on goods and services produced by the business of employer (Question 43).

The non-response rate for 2006 was 1.3% compared with 2.4% for 2001. Unlike some other census variables the non-response rate is not affected by persons imputed into non-responding dwellings, as Government/Non-Government Employer Indicator (GNGP) is only applicable for persons with a labour force status of employed.

Close to half of Government/Non-Government Employer Indicator (GNGP) data was coded as a by-product of coding for IND06P (Industry of Employment). This is when business name and address was matched to versions of the ABS's Business Register which has codes for both IND06P and GNGP. The remainder was coded based either on the INDP code they received (where a GNGP category was predominant for that particular industry class) or coded to private in the absence of any information suggesting that the business was government. In 2001, GNGP was coded using limited business name indexes with a default code of private. The 2006 approach is expected to have contributed to an improvement in the general quality of the data.

The ABS aims to produce high quality data from the Census. To achieve this, extensive effort is put into Census form design, collection procedures, and processing procedures.

There are four principal sources of error in Census data: respondent error, processing error, partial response and undercount. Quality management of the Census program aims to reduce error as much as possible, and to provide a measure of the remaining error to data users, to allow them to use the data in an informed way.

When completing their Census form, some people do not answer all the questions which apply to them. In these instances, a 'not stated' code is allocated during processing, with the exception of non-response to age, sex, marital status and place of usual residence. These variables are needed for population estimates, so they are imputed using other information on the Census form, as well as information from the previous Census.

The processing of information from Census forms is now mostly automated, using scanning, Intelligent Character Recognition and other automatic processes. Quality assurance procedures are used during Census processing to ensure processing errors are kept at an acceptable level. Sample checking is undertaken during coding operations, and corrections are made where necessary.

The Census form may be completed by one household member on behalf of others. Incorrect answers can be introduced to the Census form if the respondent does not understand the question or does not know the correct information about other household members. Many of these errors remain in the final data.

More detailed information on data quality is available in the 2006 Census Dictionary (cat. no. 2901.0), in the section titled Managing Census Quality.

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